1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus and connection unit therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, endoscope apparatuses have been used widely not only in the medical field, but also in the industrial field. For example, in the industrial field, endoscope apparatuses are used to inspect blades in engines of aircraft. The endoscope apparatus includes an insertion portion whose distal end portion is provided with an image pickup device. A user can bring the image pickup device provided in the distal end portion of the insertion portion close to a subject and display an image picked up by the image pickup device on a monitor. Also, the endoscope apparatus can not only display the image of the subject on a monitor when the image is picked up by the image pickup device provided in the distal end portion of the insertion portion, but can also store image data of the image in a storage device.
For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-6118, some endoscope apparatuses allow a storage medium such as a memory card to be loaded into an apparatus body, and consequently the user can record picked up image data, on a storage medium serving as an external memory.